Penn football topples Harvard on final-minute score, is poised to take Ivy title

Watson catches winning TD with :15 left

Friday night’s Penn-Harvard football game was must-see TV. Which is interesting, because it seemed awfully like a rerun.

For
the second consecutive year, the Red and Blue upset the Crimson in the
penultimate game of the season. For the second consecutive year, Justin
Watson was the game’s star. And for the second consecutive year, the win put Penn just one victory away from an Ivy League title.

The
Red and Blue’s 27-14 victory came down to the final
seconds. After No. 22 Harvard (7-2, 5-1 Ivy) managed to tie the score at 14 with 3:23 remaining thanks to a touchdown and two-point conversion, Penn quarterback Alek
Torgersen led the team on a 10-play, 80-yard drive to take back the
lead. A two-yard touchdown strike to junior wideout Watson with just 15 seconds remaining gave the Quakers (6-3, 5-1) the win.

“We were very
composed. We knew what we needed to do,” Torgersen said. “Fortunately
for us, things really clicked on that last drive.”

Friday
represented the team’s senior night, as the Quakers will close out the
season on the road at Cornell next Saturday. For Torgersen, the gravity
of ending his Franklin Field career — with a game-winning touchdown on
his final pass, no less — was not forgotten.

“We had one last time
to light up the Frank. I couldn’t be any happier,” said the man who is
now the Quakers’ all-time passing touchdowns leader with 51, having
surpassed 2002 graduate Gavin Hoffman.

Harvard made a last-ditch
attempt to score with just seconds left, but instead fumbled after a hit from sophomore defensive back Sam Philippi. Junior defensive end Tayler Hendrickson
returned the loose ball to the end zone as time expired, putting an
exclamation point on the victory.

That was the second defensive
touchdown of the day for the Red and Blue, who scored their first points
of the game on an interception return by defensive lineman Louis
Vecchio in the second quarter. The junior snagged a Joe Viviano pass at
the line and scampered 35 yards untouched to make the score 7-3.

“In practice all week, we’ve practiced reacting to the pass,” Vecchio said. “Things panned out the exact way we hoped it would.”

The
two defensive touchdowns highlighted what was an exceptional night for
the unit. The Quakers racked up nine tackles for loss — including six
sacks — and intercepted three Viviano passes. Vecchio provided three of
those sacks while sophomore defensive back Mason Williams had two picks,
bringing his season total to five, tied for best in the Ivy League.

Torgersen
followed up Vecchio’s score with a 47-yard touchdown strike to
sophomore wideout Christian Pearson in the third quarter. That tally
represented the Red and Blue’s first offensive points since the first
half of their Oct. 29 win versus Brown.

Harvard responded with
another field goal, before using advantageous starting field position to
put together a game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter. A
fourth-and-seven conversion on a pass to Justice Shelton-Mosely kept the
possession alive before Viviano found senior wide receiver Joseph
Foster for a 26-yard score. A trick play — ending in the receiver
Shelton-Mosely throwing to the quarterback Viviano — earned Harvard the
two-point conversion.

But then Torgersen and Co. responded.
The offense — which had been somewhat quiet all game — came alive in the
final drive. Watson caught four passes for 42 yards on the final
series, bringing his game total to 10 receptions for 120 yards.

Watson
came into the contest as the Ivy’s leader in all-purpose yards and is
on pace to statistically outdo his stellar 2015 season, in which he was a
finalist for the conference’s Offensive Player of the Year.